Mad Monkey Kung Fu (1979)

This ridiculously fun Shaw Brothers movie features the perfect mix of action, comedy and kung fu. Just about the only kung fu movie I've seen that comes close to this one in terms of pure fun is Iron Monkey (1993).

When the local gangster Tuan finds the beautiful young actress, Miss Chen, he must have her in his brothel. The only problem is that her brother Chen (played by martial arts choreographer Lau Kar-leung) is a Kung Fu master known for his monkey style and his powerful Monkey Fist. This problem is easily dealt with, as Tuan tricks Chen leading to his disgrace and Miss Chen volunteering to work in Tuan's brothel. Before letting Chen go, Tuan breaks Chen's hands so that he ca
n never use his Monkey Fist again.

When we next see Chen, he is a broken man working with his trained monkey as a street performer. To add insult to injury, street thugs shake him down every night and take all his earnings. Chen is befriended only by the orphan and petty thief, Monkey (Hsiao Ho). When the street thugs kill Chen's monkey, Monkey seeks revenge against them, only to get beaten up by them. Monkey convinces Chen to teach him his monkey style to him and if you've seen only a few examples of the "master teaches a protegee" sub-genre of kung fu movies you can get a pretty good feel for how that goes.

After a good deal of physical training Monkey returns to town and solidly humiliates the street thugs in a hilarious fight in the streets. Forcing them to take him to their boss, the street thug leads him to Tuan's brothel where he is attacked by the army of hired muscle he finds their and barely escapes with his life (thanks to the aid of Miss Chen). He returns to Chen for even more kung fu training. In the end Chen and Monkey return to Tuan's brothel for the final confrontation, but if you want to find out how that goes, you'll have to watch the movie for your self.

This is why he's called Monkey.

As I said at the beginning of this article this movie is pure fun. While it lacks the layers of intrigue of The Five Deadly Venoms, or the eccentric cast of exotic characters of Master of the Flying Guillotine, and sticks to the formula of it's own particular sub-genre, this movie is an excellent example of the 70s Kung Fu genre. If you have an interest in the genre, you should definitely add this one to your must watch list.

Mad Monkey Kung Fu